Processing Payroll
The Union Reports and Submit Payroll steps — what's checked, what you sign, and what can block a submission
After Payroll Summary, two steps remain: Union Reports, then Submit Payroll. This page covers what happens on the way to actually releasing money.
Union Reports
The fourth step shows a report for each union with payees on this run — fund routing, per-payee union calculations, and a mark reviewed checkbox for each union.
You have to mark every union reviewed to move on. Until you do, Submit Payroll stays locked in the step bar — the step simply isn't clickable, so in normal use there is no way to reach the submit screen with a union still unreviewed. See Union Reports.
Worth knowing precisely, because it decides what happens in an unusual situation: this is enforced as a gate on advancing to the step, not as a check on the submit button itself. If you arrive at Submit Payroll some other way — a bookmarked link, or going back to a run that has already moved past Draft — the button is governed by the attestation checkbox, funding, and the first-payroll rate decision, not by union review. The unions list is still shown there with each one's reviewed/not-reviewed state, but an unreviewed union will not disable the button on its own.
A sign-off stops counting the moment the report changes
Marking a union reviewed acknowledges the report as it stood then. If that report later goes back to missing something it needs — a payee acquires a per-hour fringe with no hours recorded, say, after a Local 764 Guardian is added — the sign-off stops counting immediately. Nobody has to un-tick anything, and nothing clears the checkbox: Greenroom works the answer out fresh from the stamp and the report's current state, every time it's asked.
What you see is the checkbox still ticked (deliberately — un-ticking has to stay possible) with the outstanding rows listed beside it. What you get is the Submit step locked again, and approving the run refused with a message naming which union and which payees sent you back.
Submit Payroll
The final step recaps the run one more time before you commit to it:
- Final figures — payee count, gross, net pay, fringe funds, employer taxes (with an estimate/synced note), and the direct-deposit/physical-check split
- Total to fund — the same footed number from Payroll Totals, front and center. Once Check has actually priced this run, the label switches to Check cash requirement and shows Check's own figure instead of Greenroom's estimate — a small badge next to it reads either "Funding: Greenroom estimate" or "Funding: Check · [time]" so you always know which one you're looking at.
- New York unemployment rate decision, only on your company's very first payroll and only if Greenroom doesn't have your rate on file — see What can block submitting below
- Union reports — a quick list of which unions are marked reviewed
- Unverified rate book warning, if any union on this run has one — see Payroll Calculations
- "This production's Business info is incomplete", if it is — see Business info gaps below
- A post-tax deduction notice, if Greenroom and Check disagree about what will be withheld — see When Check won't withhold your post-tax deductions below
- A money-movement notice, unless this is a live payroll — see Will submitting actually move money? below
- Approval panel, if your company requires two approvals before submitting — see Payroll Run Status
- A funding-timing note: if Check's live processing period for your company is next-day, this reads as a reminder that approval needs to land by roughly noon Wednesday for funds to arrive by the scheduled check date. If Check is running a slower cycle, the note names that cycle instead (for example "2-day processing") and tells you to submit early enough for the check date. If Check's timeline hasn't synced yet, it says so rather than guessing. Either way, submitting late pushes the pay date to the next banking day.
- An attestation checkbox: "I reviewed the payroll summary and union reports[, including manually verifying amounts for any unverified-rate-book unions]. Submitting records this run, assigns check numbers, and locks the period." You have to check this before the submit button becomes active.
The button itself changes label depending on your company's settings, your role, and where things stand:
- Submit payroll — no approval requirement on your company.
- Submit to Greenroom — approval requirement, and either it's already satisfied (this click releases the money) or you're a reviewer looking at a run that still needs approvals (the button stays disabled until the gate clears — approve it in the panel below instead).
- Send for approval — you're the preparer and the approval gate isn't satisfied yet.
- Done — back to payroll history — you're the preparer and you already sent this run for approval; there's nothing left for you to do here, so the button just navigates you out. Landing back on this page right after sending shows a "Sent for approval" confirmation banner first.
What happens when you submit
Submitting isn't a long wait — it's a short series of steps that happen right away:
- Check numbers are assigned to every check-paid payee, continuing from the highest number your company has ever issued
- Union fund payments are calculated and their routing is locked in permanently for this run
- The payroll is sent to Check, our payroll provider, for approval
- The run's status moves to Paying out
From here, the money is committed — see Payroll Run Status for what "Paying out" means and how a run reaches Paid. There's no fixed processing-time estimate to give: assigning check numbers and routing funds happens in moments, and the remaining wait is for your bank to confirm the payout, which isn't on a timer Greenroom controls.
If Check declines the payroll at the last step
Step 3 above is the only part of a submit that Greenroom doesn't control. If Check declines it, what happens next depends on whether the payroll at Check was left untouched — and Greenroom knows the answer for a specific, measured set of refusals rather than guessing.
| What you'll see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "…the run is back in Review, unchanged and still editable. Try submitting it again." | Check declined for a reason that provably changed nothing on its side. Greenroom rolled the run back to Review. | Submit again. If it's refused a second time, contact Greenroom rather than retrying — the cause is on our side and repeating it won't clear it. |
| "…the run is parked and cannot be resubmitted from here — contact Greenroom and we'll clear it." | Check declined for a reason Greenroom hasn't verified as harmless. Nothing was sent and nobody was paid, but the run is held. | Contact Greenroom with the run code. |
| "This payroll is already being submitted…" | A second Submit landed while the first was still with Check. Nothing was sent twice. | Wait a moment and refresh. If it still says this after a few minutes, contact Greenroom rather than submitting again. |
| "This payroll has no matching payroll at our payroll provider…" | Greenroom's own state is wrong. Nothing was sent. | Contact Greenroom — don't resubmit. |
| The approval deadline has passed | Check's cut-off for this check date is gone. | See Payroll Run Status — the run rolls back so you can re-date it. |
There's one case that deliberately moves the run forward instead of back: if Check reports the payroll as already approved, Check holds it and the money is in flight. Parking the run there would leave Greenroom saying nothing happened while Check paid everybody, so the run advances instead.
Whichever branch fires, Check's own wording is recorded against the run for support to read; you're shown the plain-language version instead, because the vendor's text usually names an internal object nobody outside Greenroom can act on.
A retry never fails just because Check already holds the payroll
If a submit is retried after an earlier attempt partly landed, Check reports the payroll's items as already existing. Greenroom reads the payroll back from Check before deciding anything — for employee items and for contractor payments alike — and treats that answer as success when every payee it sent is there. Only payees genuinely missing from Check's copy are named in a refusal.
Multi-state payroll (withholding, reciprocity, and state-by-state filings) is not yet supported — see Known Gaps for current status.
Will submitting actually move money?
The submit screen says so outright, in a card at the very top — but only when the answer is anything other than "yes". A live payroll gets no banner at all, deliberately: a notice on every run forever becomes wallpaper people stop reading, exactly when it finally matters.
| Notice | When you'll see it | What submitting does |
|---|---|---|
| Sandbox environment — no real money moves | Greenroom is pointed at Check's test environment | Sends a test payroll. No funds are drawn, nobody is paid. The same button will submit a real payroll once Greenroom is connected to Check's live environment. |
| Demo company — no real money moves | The company is a demo tenant | Never sent to Check at all, live connection or not. Records the run and assigns check numbers, nothing more. |
| No payroll provider connected — no real money moves | No Check credentials in this environment | Records the run in Greenroom only. No payroll is created with Check, nobody is paid. |
| (no banner) | A live payroll on a real company | Real money. |
Business info gaps
If your production's Business info is missing anything, a card on the submit screen says so, names the fields, and links you to Company Setup — with the explicit promise that the run stays exactly where it is while you go fix it.
It warns; it never blocks. The point is timing rather than enforcement: the setup checklist already knew, but you have no reason to revisit that screen once your company is approved, so the gap surfaces here at the moment it's about to cost you.
Greenroom is careful about which claim it makes for which field, because they're genuinely different:
- Production name, FEIN, full address, phone — "Our payroll provider needs this production's … before it will approve a payroll." These reach Check, and a gap is a real refusal waiting to happen. A partial address is the worst of them: at Check it's a one-way door.
- Business type, expected payee count, expected start date — "This production's setup is also missing its …, which Greenroom needs even though we can send the payroll without them." Greenroom fills or omits these on the wire, so no vendor consequence is claimed for them.
A whitespace-only field counts as missing, not present.
When Check won't withhold your post-tax deductions
This one is worth reading carefully, because it costs money in a way that isn't obvious.
Union working dues and other post-tax deductions aren't sent to Check yet. Greenroom withholds them in its own calculation, so they sit inside gross and inside your funding figure — but Check never receives them, so Check pays that money out to the payee. Meanwhile the full amount is still owed to the fund, and Greenroom's remittance reports still show it owed.
The same dollars therefore go to the payee and remain owed to the fund. Your funding figure is short by exactly the difference.
When this applies, the submit screen and the funding panel both show a warning with three numbers — Greenroom recorded, Check will withhold, and Difference — and the same warning is printed on the funding document, so the copy you take to the bank says it too.
This is advisory, never a blocker. Budget for the shortfall when you fund the run, and remit the dues from your own account.
The notice has a second, rarer form: "Check is withholding more than Greenroom recorded." That direction is strictly worse — Check is applying a deduction Greenroom never computed. The copy says what to do: do not approve until this is explained; contact Greenroom.
What can block submitting
Most checks on this page are informational. A real submit attempt runs several more checks, in order — company standing, then run-level funding, then every payee at once, then two first-payroll-only questions. Anything that blocks surfaces as a specific, actionable message rather than silently proceeding.
Checked first, company-wide
| Block | What it means |
|---|---|
| Provider has closed, paused, or declined this company | Check has closed the company's account, placed it out of good standing, or denied its business verification. Payroll can't be funded or filed until that's resolved — contact Greenroom, since some of these have to be resubmitted through Check on your behalf. |
Checked before the run's status moves at all
These are decided entirely from data Greenroom already holds, so they're settled before anything is committed.
| Block | What it means |
|---|---|
| Nobody on the payroll | The run has no entries. Add at least one payee. |
| Everybody excluded | The run has entries, but every one of them is excluded. Un-exclude somebody on the Employees & Loan-outs or Vendors & Contractors step — these two are different problems with different fixes, so Greenroom tells them apart rather than reporting "empty" for both. |
Checked once for the whole run
| Block | What it means |
|---|---|
| Check funding does not reconcile | Greenroom's Check-scoped amount and Check's own cash requirement disagree by more than a cent. The card shows both figures and the signed difference. A material disagreement points to a mapping error, and approving would cement it into a real tax filing — so there's no override. |
| Check preview hasn't succeeded | Check hasn't finished pricing the run, or its preview failed. Review any provider messages and correct the payroll. |
| Check preview is incomplete | One or more Check-managed payees are missing from the provider's preview. Refresh it and review every payee. |
| We couldn't reach Check | Greenroom asks Check to confirm the figures immediately before approval and that request didn't come back. Nothing is wrong with your payroll — wait a few minutes and try again. Approving without a current confirmation risks submitting out-of-date tax figures, which can't be corrected on this payroll afterwards. |
| Check couldn't confirm this payroll | Check answered and refused. The card names the refusal; retrying won't clear it. |
| We couldn't read Check's figures | Check answered, but not in a shape Greenroom could reconcile against. Greenroom refuses rather than guessing. |
The comparison is narrower than "our total versus their total", and it has to be. Greenroom's own funding figure includes union fringe, Greenroom's fees, postage, and .045 settlement routing — none of which Check knows anything about. So the reconciliation looks only at the payees Check actually previewed, and compares Greenroom's cost as Check was told it: pre-tax deductions come off (Check is sent gross minus pre-tax), post-tax deductions come off for non-employees (Check is sent an amount already net of dues), taxes Check withholds but won't remit come off, and so does the net pay of anyone Check isn't disbursing — every payee on a manual payment method, which includes contractors and any employee without a Check-validated bank account.
Checked per payee, all at once
A run with several problems shows every one of them on the first attempt rather than one at a time.
| Block | Applies to | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Tax withholding not complete | W-2 employees managed through Check | A required withholding step (for example, a missing W-4) isn't finished for this payee |
| Contractor payment not ready | 1099 contractors, loan-outs, and vendors managed through Check | The payee's W-9 isn't signed, or their tax ID failed validation |
| Payment-direction authorization incomplete | Payees whose representative is set to receive their pay in full, not just a commission | That representative's payment-direction authorization hasn't been drafted yet, or hasn't been reviewed by a Greenroom admin — see Representatives & Child Trust Payments |
| Foreign payee | Any included payee flagged as foreign | Greenroom doesn't yet support paying a foreign payee (W-8 / 1042-S filing isn't built) — exclude them from this run |
The first two only apply once a payee is connected to Check (a demo company's payees, for instance, are exempt). The representative and foreign-payee checks are local to Greenroom and apply regardless of Check.
Checked only on your company's first payroll
| Block | What it means |
|---|---|
| Prior-provider wages unresolved | If anyone here was paid through a different payroll provider earlier this year, company setup needs an answer before your first payroll can go through. This is a one-way door: once a payroll is approved, the route for importing those prior wages closes at Check and the only fix left is manual, through Check's console. The answer expires at the turn of the tax year — see below. |
| New York unemployment rate undecided | Not a hard block — a required decision. If Greenroom doesn't have your assigned NY unemployment rate, a card on this screen holds the Submit/Send button until you pick one of three routes: enter your assigned rate, use New York's published new-employer rate with one click, or continue at our provider's default rate with the choice recorded against your name. Every route lets the payroll go. This only matters on the first payroll because tax freezes the moment a payroll is approved — a rate entered afterward can't correct it. From your second payroll on, a missing rate shows only as a warning and blocks nothing. |
The prior-provider question expires each tax year
In Company Setup, Greenroom asks once: "Have you paid anyone through another payroll provider this year?" — answerable as "No — this is our first payroll of the year" or "Yes — we've paid people elsewhere this year."
The reason it can't wait: wages already paid this year have to be carried across, or your people get over-withheld and you can end up paying employer taxes twice on the same wages. Check only accepts that carry-across before your first payroll runs here.
An answer counts only for the tax year it was given in. A "no" recorded last year does not authorize this year — come January, the question reopens and Submit is held until you answer it again for the new year. That's deliberate: an answer that carried forward indefinitely would silently authorize every subsequent year, which has the same consequence as never having asked.
If you hit this, the fix is quick — go back to Company Setup and answer the question for the current year. The two buttons reappear there whenever the stored answer is stale.
If you answer "yes"
Answering yes opens a panel asking for the figures themselves: everyone paid on this production this year, their gross wages, the taxes withheld from each, and the pay dates. A year-to-date report or payroll register from your previous provider usually has all of it.
Two things you can do from there, and the ordering is deliberate:
- Email your year-to-date figures — the primary action. It opens a pre-addressed message to Greenroom support with your company number in the subject; the address is printed beside it as plain text too, in case your browser has no mail handler. Greenroom loads the figures for you.
- Continue without year-to-date figures — a quiet, secondary control, because it's a one-way door.
What continuing without them actually costs
Social Security and unemployment wage bases restart for everyone. Some people will be over-withheld, and you may pay employer tax twice on wages you've already paid tax on. It can't be undone for that tax year.
Send them before you approve your first payroll. Once a payroll is approved, Check stops accepting prior-provider wages through the app, and putting it right afterwards means Greenroom doing it by hand with Check — slower, and not something we can promise a date for.
Cancelling a payroll
There's no cancel action once a run has moved past Draft. Before then, delete the draft outright — see Payroll Run Status. Once you've submitted, don't try to reverse it yourself; contact support with the run's code if there's an urgent problem.
Best practices
- Review Payroll Summary and Union Reports thoroughly before you reach this screen — Submit Payroll is a final check, not a place to start reviewing
- Confirm the total-to-fund (or Check cash requirement) number against your bank balance before submitting
- Read the funding-timing note on this screen for your company's actual cutoff — it names Check's live processing cycle instead of assuming next-day
- Keep the run's code handy after submitting, in case you need to contact support
Next steps
After submitting, continue to Payroll Success for what the confirmation means and where the run lives afterward, or see Payroll Run Status for the full status lifecycle.